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AP News (16 August 2024)

Charlotte Graham-McLay

Beijing weaponized tourism to the Pacific archipelago of Palau over its allegiance to Taiwan and its accusations that China was behind a major cyberattack there, President Surangel Whipps Jr. told The Associated Press.

Palau, along with Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, is one three Pacific nations to recognize Taiwan as an independent democracy — viewed as a snub by Beijing, which asserts it is part of China. Taipei’s allies in the Pacific have dwindled from six countries in 2019; Nauru abandoned its ties in January.

Whipps told the AP in an interview late Thursday that, in 2020 while he was running for his current post, the Chinese ambassador to a neighboring country pledged to flood his tourism-dependent nation of 20,000 people with a million visitors if he capitulated on the country’s stance.

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